Generics Score Victory in India, but Battle Over Patents Rages On

Score one yesterday for generic drug makers in the never-ending global battle over patent protection for name-brand pharmaceuticals.

In a ruling by the Supreme Court in India, pharmaceutical giant Novartis AG lost the right to keep sales of its cancer drug Gleevec free from generic competition. A year’s supply of Gleevec, which is extremely effective against certain types of leukemia, can cost $70,000. Generic versions bring the tab down to about $2,500. India is the world’s biggest source of low-cost generic medications.

While the developing world is a major concern for the pharmaceutical industry — presenting both potentially huge markets and threats to patent protections — drugmakers spend significant resources worrying about their patents in the U.S., as well. Last year, Novartis spent $7.4 million on its Washington lobbying presence, which swung into action on such bills as the Patent Reform Act (S.23) and the Preserve Access to Affordable Generics Act (S.27).

Patent, as well as trade, issues were among those most frequently lobbied in 2012 by Teva, Watson and other top makers of generic drugs as well, according to Center for Responsive Politics data. And trade was the foremost concern of the Generic Pharmaceutical Association, though the trade group only spent about $2 million on lobbying last year, a drop in the bucket compared to PhRMA’s outlays.

But the hotspot for the battle between generic and brand in Washington right now may be the Supreme Court. Last week, the justices heard arguments about whether it’s okay for brand name pharmaceutical makers to pay generic manufacturers to keep their cheaper drugs off the market for a set period of time — a longtime practice sometimes known as “pay to delay,” which the Federal Trade Commission has said is anticompetitive. As far as we know, the high Court can’t be lobbied, at least not in the traditional sense.

Washington reporter Viveca Novak joined the Center in December 2011 as editorial and communications director; her duties include running the OpenSecrets Blog, fielding press inquiries and developing media partnerships. Viveca has been deputy director of FactCheck.org and a Washington correspondent for Time magazine and The Wall Street Journal. She has won a number of journalism awards, including Harvard's Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting. In 2014, she was awarded, with colleague Robert Maguire, the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi Award for Public Service in Online Journalism for a series of stories published on OpenSecrets Blog. In 2005, she co-authored a book, "Inside the Wire," about the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo. Viveca has a degree in foreign affairs from the University of Virginia and an M.S. in journalism from Columbia University; in addition, she completed a Fellowship in Law for Journalists at Yale Law School.

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